Destiny 2 Weekend Update – September 6, 2019

Did you miss me? Now that PAX is over and done with and I’m back from vacation, I’m getting back to grips with Destiny 2. We’re still a few weeks off from Shadowkeep, thank god — I’m elated that I won’t be trying to play it and Borderlands 3 simultaneously. In the meantime, though, Bungie has been dropping new updates and challenging us to kill lots of Hive. Here’s your Destiny 2 weekend update.

Braytech Schematics have a 25% drop chance when opening any Rasputin Data Cache

The four Braytech weapons offered by Ana Bray, and also tied to the Wayfarer seal, now have a greater chance of granting a weapon you do not currently have.

NOTE: The description of the item will be incorrect and still mention that it’s limited to 1 per day, per account. This will be addressed in a future hotfix.

Pinnacle Weapon Quests

Wendigo GL3

Grenade Launcher kills are worth 100% more for each objective

Death Penalty no longer exist for the final objective

Grenade Launcher multikills grant 50% more progress

Completing Playlist strikes grants a significant amount of progress towards the final objective

Mountaintop

Required number of multi-kills has been reduced from 200 to 75

Required number of medals has been reduced from 100 to 25

Points earned in Competitive has been further increased relative to other pvp modes

roughly 1x for Quickplay, 2x for IB, 3x for comp

ACTIVITIES

Gambit Prime and Reckoning

Enemies in Reckoning adjusted to have less health and do less damage to players

Increased weapon drop rates in Reckoning and Gambit Prime

Further increased bad luck protection to each activity, so players should receive a weapon reward after playing multiple matches without one dropping

Tier 3 Reckoning will have even higher drop rates, as it is more challenging

Eververse

Refunds

Fixed an issue that would cause wrapped items to no longer be refundable when transferred between characters

Character Boosts

The Forsaken character boost is no longer available for purchase

Players will continue to receive one free character boost when accessing Forsaken for the first time

Destiny 2 Shadowkeep Armor Reveals and Balance Changes

This week, Bungie revealed a number of new armor sets coming with Shadowkeep. For all the details, check out our post on the new Destiny 2 armors coming this fall. That post also details some upcoming changes to Crucible and abilities in the new expansion.

Perhaps most notably, Bungie is removing instant reload abilities from the game. The Warlock Well of Radiance and Titan Rally Barricade will now increase reload speed, rather than remove the necessity to reload entirely. I’m looking forward to seeing how this changes the dynamic of play — maybe Warlocks will be allowed to run something other than Dawnblade in PVE.

Destiny 2 Mars Community Challenge

The Mars Community Challenge is in full swing, as Guardians get practice in against the Hive in anticipation of Shadowkeep. Remember, to get the emblem from the event, you have to complete at least one Nightfall before this coming Tuesday at 10 AM Pacific time. Once the event’s complete, Bungie will be sending the emblems out next week.

Xur Inventory and Location — September 6 2019

This week, you can find Xur in the Winding Cove location on the EDZ. In addition to his usual Isochronal Engram and Invitation of the Nine for anyone who’s yet to complete that quest, he’s selling Lord of Wolves, Gemini Jester, Sunbracers, and Lion Rampant.

Lord of Wolves is an Exotic Solar shotgun. It famously ruled the Crucible for a few weeks this summer after Bungie overshot a buff to the weapon that made it deadly even at long range. Since then it’s been cut down and has fallen greatly in popularity, but it’s still a useful PVP weapon.

Sunbracers are Exotic Warlock gauntlets. Upon a Solar melee kill, they grant unlimited Solar Grenade energy for a brief period. They’re not especially useful in Crucible, but in PVE they’re a blast. Combine with mods improving your grenade and melee regeneration rates for best results.

Gemini Jester is an Exotic Hunter leg armor. Its intrinsic perk, Misdirection, disorients nearby enemies and removes their radar when you dodge. There are a lot of good Hunter Exotics, and Gemini Jester suffers by comparison. That said, you can pair it with Way of the Warrior Arcstrider tree to give you powerful, disorienting dodges while your super is active.

Lion Rampant is an Exotic Titan arm piece. They give you better aerial maneuverability and hip-fire aiming while airborne. Useful for jumping puzzles, but that’s about it.

Destiny 2 Ascendant Challenge — September 3 2019

This week’s portal is mercifully one of the easiest to reach. Just spawn in the Divalian Mists and immediately turn around to enter the Bay of Drowned Wishes Lost Sector. The portal is inside. Just hug the right-hand wall as you enter. You can’t miss it (assuming you’ve become Ascendant with the Tincture of Queensfoil).

This is arguably the easiest challenge to complete, too. All you need to do in this giant abyss is follow platforms all the way down to the bottom. That’s… really it. You can see the main, lit platform you need to reach if you look carefully. So just make your way down slowly. Be careful, as some of the platforms do rotate, but it’s easy enough to predict.

Kill the two wizards that spawn after you reach the final area. As with most Ascendant Challenges, it might help to have a friend or two. You get kicked out of the portal if you die, but allies can save your progress until you return.